Yooka-Laylee - A 3D Platformer Rare-vival!

£2,090,104

73,206

Yooka-Laylee is an all-new 3D platformer from the creative talent behind the Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country games. We’ve come together to form Playtonic Games and create a spiritual successor to our most cherished work from the past!

Our new heroes, Yooka (the green bloke with no pants) and Laylee (the wisecracking lady-bat with the big nose) were conceptualised from the ground up for stellar platforming gameplay, created by the same character artist behind the rebooted Donkey Kong family and legendary N64 heroes Banjo and Kazooie.

We did this in 3 months. It took me almost that long to write this page.

Heroes Built for Fun: Our new buddy-duo were dreamed up specifically for entertaining platforming gameplay and exceptional colour coordination. We think we've captured the spirit of our past heroes while introducing our most inventive moves yet.

An Arsenal of Abilities: Sonar blasting, tongue whipping, sky soaring… a move roster built for platforming fun – and unlocked with added freedom. Additionally, there may or may not be a move involving a giant fart bubble.

Yooka regretted filling out that PPI claim.

A Dream Soundtrack: David Wise (Donkey Kong Country) and Grant Kirkhope (Banjo-Kazooie) combine in what's sure to be a melodic masterpiece! Seriously, clean out your ears - they're in for a treat.

Collect-em-up 2.0: A roster of shiny collectibles with gameplay progression at their core (as well as other, more valuable materials). Every collectible type in our new game will expand gameplay in a meaningful way. Yes, we employ the man responsible for DK64's myriad of trinkets, but we've had a stern word. Our main collectible, Pagies, are used to unlock and expand new worlds in Yooka-Laylee.

Expandable Worlds: Experience more of the playgrounds you love by spending collectibles to expand your favourites into bigger, more challenging worlds.

Take (musical) note: our new collectibles are work in progress.

A Cast to Last: A huge cast of memorable characters to meet (or beat) brought to life by the art and audio teams behind Banjo-Kazooie and destined to endure in future games as part of Playtonic Universe. Expect all manner of grunts, squeaks and squawks.

Introducing Play Tonics: Discover these unique gameplay modifiers and use them to customise gameplay to suit your style. Will you run faster, hit harder or fly further? Also, are they named after our studio or vice versa? We'll never know.

Arcade machines: Each world hides at least one secret arcade game encasing old-school gaming goodness. Complete its retro-tastic challenge to claim your Pagie!

You can expect accurate bat physics.

During their adventures Yooka and Laylee will complete challenges to unlock and collect Pagies. These golden collectibles are the main currency in the game, used not only to unlock new worlds but expand them too.

It's snow joke, this world's going to be cool.

In the jungle world showcased in this Kickstarter for example, new islands containing advanced features and challenges will become available once you’ve decided to hand your Pagies over to the world-building construction crew.

Don’t give a monkey’s? Spend your Pagies elsewhere. If you desire, world expansion can be ignored entirely and you can hop, skip and roll your way through the standard worlds towards the final boss lurking in his or her mighty keep. And once the pivotal villain is nought but ash on the pavement, you can still opt to explore the expanded worlds with your full moveset post-credits to hunt down those leftover Pagies.

This is one musical
performance you definitely won’t want to miss! Don't believe us? Listen to the early excerpts below and tell us you're not excited. Go on, we dare ya.

'Jungle World' (working title / progress) by Grant Kirkhope:

'Jungle Challenge' (working title / in progress) by David Wise:

What's more we've already had Chris Sutherland - part time programmer, full time voice actor extraordinaire - locked in the recording booth to bring his iconic 'gibberish' style to the characters (and googly-eyed objects) of Yooka-Laylee, ensuring a genuine audio treat. You might as well play it with your eyes closed, to be honest.

If our initial Kickstarter funding goal is reached, backers can be assured that the Playtonic team will deliver a complete and satisfying game package. However, given the opportunity and additional resources required, we have a list of ‘dream’ additional extras – and release structures - that we’d love to deliver in order to make Yooka-Laylee an even better game.

If funded, Yooka-Laylee will be released for Windows, Mac, Linux, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Wii U. However, the exact release timing and scope of each version will be determined by the success of this Kickstarter campaign and specifically, our stretch goals.

We’d love to be able to guarantee a simultaneous, day-one release on all platforms in order to satisfy every Yooka-Laylee backer. In order to do this we’ll need to significantly expand our resources and budget, and if we can reach the funding number required we’d be excited to do so.

Any extra money will of course go towards improving the game. Below is an example of some of the extra features we’ll be able to fulfil by reaching stretch funding goals:

What the Bleedin’ Norah is a Toybox?
Our Toybox experiences are designed to deliver hands on time with Yooka and Laylee before the game even comes out. You can be the first to take our heroic duo for a spin (literally, if you press X) but we promise this self-contained plaything won’t spoil the full game: It’s built from in-game assets arranged specifically for this experience. There won’t be any objectives to beat, just a controllable duo, nice music and a few surprises too… !

Toybox ++
The Enhanced Playtonic Toybox? Well of course, sir. A fine choice. I’ll prepare the improved play space, advanced props and special moves right away. Oh I’m sorry, are those sports shoes? I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave.

It'll look something like this: (work in progress!)

[Updated 08 June] The concert will be in Stuttgart, Germany at the Hegel Saal on October 30th 2016 – David and Grant are confirmed with more details to follow soon…!

The Playtonic Team, composers and our backers will meet up in Stuttgart
• You will be our VIP guests, we’ll all sit together at the concert and dinner and discuss the potential reasons why Grant talks so fast

Playtonic was formed in 2014 by
veterans of Rare Ltd. Between them,
the seven-person Playtonic team has over 100 years of combined experience working
on blockbuster franchises such as Donkey
Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie, Viva Piñata and Kameo: Elements of Power – and using this Kickstarter we intend to
grow our talent even further! Allow us to introduce the team (so far)…

Our plan is to have Yooka-Laylee ready to ship on PC, Mac and Linux by October 2016. Console versions will follow shortly after, dependent on resources and the performance of this Kickstarter campaign. However, if our crowdfunding is a big success and stretch goals met, then we will look to secure the resources required to pull off a simultaneous, day-one release on all major console platforms alongside PC, Mac and Linux.

In order to finish Yooka-Laylee we will need to expand our team to an ‘N64 size’ roster of around 15, which we’ll look to do immediately upon reaching our funding goal. Therefore the vast majority of our budget will be allocated to wages and office space, plus the cost of outsourcing sound, testing and version creation.

Yooka-Laylee is a real passion project for the Playtonic team and we’ve all made financial sacrifices to get it this far. We’ll finish the game at a smaller scale even if this Kickstarter doesn’t succeed, but the game will be bigger and better if it does!

Risks and challenges

Game development can be a harsh taskmaster, with time and financial constraints often providing unexpected challenges that can ultimately lead to changes and delays. Fortunately, the Playtonic Games team has collectively been involved in more than 30 different games across more than ten different platforms and has great expertise in the 3D platformer specifically, with a strong track record of shipping some of the genre’s greatest hits.

So not only do we have extensive experience delivering quality releases within this genre, but we’re also well versed in working under the pressures of strict deadlines, budgets and high expectation. We’re very confident we can deliver a game that lives up to fan expectations, on time and on budget.

Another challenge is to find the perfect balance between our own ideas for Yooka-Laylee and the expectations of the community. We’re well aware that many fans are deeply, passionately attached to our past work and in some ways probably understand and adore its intricacies even better than we do. That’s why over the coming months – and during this very Kickstarter campaign – we’ll be consulting the community on some design issues and then ultimately making the final decision within our development team on the absolute direction.

In the past our most famous games have been single-platform releases. However, backers can be assured that the Playtonic team already has the necessary experience and channels to deliver a multiplatform release, and if certain stretch goals are met we’ll recruit in this area to deliver different versions of our game to an even smoother deadline. This is also one of the reasons we've decided to create the game using the versatile Unity engine.

Pledge £70 or more
About US$ 89

A beautiful, shrink-wrapped physical edition of Yooka-Laylee that you can put on your shelf and own forever. Plus get a CD soundtrack, physical retro manual and art book! All previous rewards are included.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £340 or more
About US$ 430

(Approx $535 USD, €476 EUR)

SIGNED EXCLUSIVE CHARACTER PARADE POSTER + PC BOXED DELUXE EDITION!

An exclusive character parade poster signed by the Playtonic development team! Also includes the Yooka-Laylee PC Boxed Deluxe Edition with physical game, manual, soundtrack and art book! Special Thanks and Enhanced PC Toybox+ reward also included.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £340 or more
About US$ 430

(Approx $535 USD, €476 EUR)

*THE 64-BIT EDITION!*
RETRO BOX, N64 CART DRIVE, SIGNED MANUAL

A retro-themed physical package complete with classic box, SIGNED manual and an exclusive Yooka-Laylee N64 cartridge with built-in 64GB flash drive! Also includes a digital copy of the final game, CD soundtrack and art book. Special Thanks and Enhanced PC Toybox+ reward also included.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £340 or more
About US$ 430

(Approx $535 USD, €476 EUR)

Due to incredible demand!!!

*THE 64-BIT EDITION!*
RETRO BOX, N64 CART DRIVE, SIGNED MANUAL

A retro-themed physical package complete with classic box, SIGNED manual and an exclusive Yooka-Laylee N64 cartridge with built-in 64GB flash drive! Also includes a digital copy of the final game, CD soundtrack and art book. Special Thanks and Enhanced PC Toybox+ reward also included.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £340 or more
About US$ 430

(Approx $535 USD, €476 EUR)

Final run!

*THE 64-BIT EDITION!*
RETRO BOX, N64 CART DRIVE, SIGNED MANUAL

A retro-themed physical package complete with classic box, SIGNED manual and an exclusive Yooka-Laylee N64 cartridge with built-in 64GB flash drive! Also includes a digital copy of the final game, CD soundtrack and art book. Special Thanks and Enhanced PC Toybox+ reward also included.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £675 or more
About US$ 854

(Approx $1,060 USD, €945 EUR)

HELP SHAPE THE GAME!

Video conference with the Playtonic development team to help us solve a design challenge and shape the final version of Yooka-Laylee! Includes the Boxed Deluxe Edition of the game plus Special Thanks and Enhanced PC Toybox+ reward.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge £5,000 or more
About US$ 6,330

(Approx $7,850 USD, €7,000 EUR)

VIP GUEST ATTENDANCE AT A LIVE ORCHESTRA CONCERT IN GERMANY!

Premium seating at a live orchestra concert in Germany featuring music by Playtonic composers David Wise and Grant Kirkhope, followed by dinner with the music duo and the Playtonic team! Plus ALL previous physical rewards!